December 06, 2004
LaBrake's legacy
Last week a federal jury convicted LaBrake, his wife, Lynne, and Chester Luney, former head of a local charity that built and repaired homes for poor people, of conspiracy, wire fraud and multiple bribery charges. The LaBrakes had been accused of taking bribes and gratuities from Luney and others, while steering federal contracts to his charity and Ryan Construction Co., which helped build LaBrake's luxury home at a cut rate.Posted by Norwood at December 6, 2004 07:12 AMLaBrake has been out of the city's housing department for three years, but his tenure continues to affect how it helps low-income residents. Because of LaBrake, the city reorganized the department, eliminated managers, held onto scores of lots where low-income homes could have been built, and repaid millions to the federal government that could have helped Tampa residents.
All of the changes paralyzed the department at times. For months, officials stopped work while they figured out how to overhaul the staff.
For five months, the office did no new repair work on decaying houses for the poor. And since April, the program to build new affordable houses has been stalled, causing 120 lots to sit vacant.
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